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I am so, so enamored of the stuff being posted here! I wouldn't normally chime in, because I am an untreatable lurker, but I wanted to add something that y'all might not know-- the duel songs were not written for Utena, but they were also not slapped on after the fact. Apparently what the Be-Papas did was listen to the songs while writing and use certain songs to inspire certain characters. Basically vibes-based. The duel songs aren't going to have a 1:1 correlation with the characters, but there is a definite connection. I'm so happy people are still watching this series! And if anyone wants to write more about how Miki represents West Germany or whatever, I am all loving ears.
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Nov 10, 2023 07:48
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 13:04 |
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I am pounding my table waiting for you to write that essay. Seriously, do it!
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Nov 10, 2023 11:01
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Ah, yeah, Seazer continued to compose and rearrange Utena tracks long after the series was finished-- I hope you'll forgive me, but after Barbara Dwarf Star Child Apocalypse I was a bit more focused on the musicals. Which are loving amazing by the way, genuinely a treat, even to the point of incorporating "I Am An Imaginary Living Body" as Mikage's duel in the second one, and I'm so upset that covid robbed us of a third musical. But yeah, absolutely, you're right, Seazer kept composing and rearranging Utena-esque tracks until... well, he hasn't stopped that I know of. We've tried to keep track of it here but we would so welcome any help!
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Nov 10, 2023 13:10
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From an academic standpoint, we have access to three musicals: the 1997 musical (Takarazuka style!), the 2018 musical which covers the StuCo arc, and the 2019 musical that covers the Black Rose arc. There are other musicals, such as the "Anthy machine guns down zombies" musical that we can only dream of. We've asked. We've had people contact the theatre. No recordings exist. As far as the musicals we have access to... ask and ye shall receive, and we'll probably even make a do out of streaming it seeing as we haven't done it in a while. And if you ever hear of that missing musical, loving let us know oh my god.
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Nov 10, 2023 13:56
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chrome line, something is hosed up with my awfulapp so I can't quote or message but please, please send something in to us. No one will ever experience Utena the way you will. No one will ever pick out the same details or make the same associations you will. This is an intensely personal show. Don't deprive us of your point of view.
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Nov 10, 2023 14:00
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 13:04 |
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chrome line posted:Your theory about the Touga stuff is I believe actually what happened. My understanding is they wanted to put his backstory in the show but weren't able to for some reason. Maybe it got too explicit about the child abuse for the timeslot. Takehito Koyasu, who voices Touga, was unable to be in the second season of Utena-- I've heard that it was due to scheduling conflicts or that it might have been due to illness, and I can't recall which claim was better sourced atm. Either way, Touga's backstory was probably set to be revealed in the second season had they been able to include him. We'd have gotten a very different BRS if Touga had been an active character in it. Here is the text of Enokido's quote regarding Touga's background, spoilered and obviously content warning for sexual abuse of a child: Although the TV series touched upon Touga’s younger days, the film goes into more details – the wound of Touga that was never directly depicted. In his younger days, Touga was a normal kid who enjoyed happy times with his friend Saionji Kyouichi and his younger sister Nanami. However, he came to know his unfortunate fate from the time he was ordered by his parents to wear his hair long. His parents sold him to the Kiryuu family. Although he was an adopted son on the surface, the instinctive Touga knew what that meant. And in order to protect his younger sister, he accepted his lot. Being sold. We did not go into depicting what Touga’s parents obtained by going as far as selling their son. We would like you to think of it as a kind of metaphor. And Touga accepted in silence the sexual abuse from his new parents. His personality changed while he made a magnanimous show of enjoying the abuses in order to prevent his personality from splitting. The change took place in a spot so deep in his mind, that even those closest to him did not notice. Saionji and Nanami never noticed out of their innocence. And Touga never told his secret to anyone. It is said that a human being gains whatever he lost in exchange. So what did Touga gain in exchange at that point in time? It was the sense of alienation from being abused every night and seeing his innocent friend and sister during the day. The alienated self. And it is out of this awareness of alienation that you come to obtain a higher human and sexual self-awareness. In the TV series, Saionji always felt that he was one step behind Touga. Although the two are more or less equal in terms of ability, what Saionji lacked was that sense of alienation. This comes from the Shoujo Kakumei Utena Privacy Files, which tbh I can't remember where they are on our trash heap of a site so here's a link to where they were posted on the old forum. They're an interesting read-- Enokido did a lot of the story work for Touga, Akio, and Anthy-centric episodes so he's got some interesting insights. If anyone still wants more Utena, you can also check out the light novels or if there's anyone interested I could dig up wherever we're hosting the game files now, or of course there's always the new musicals, which imo were fantastic.
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Dec 9, 2023 13:32
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